Source |
There’s a schism between what they teach you in library
school and what actually happens in libraries. It’s no secret; I’ve even had a
professor mention reading articles and books about “what they don’t teach you”
about working in a library.
I have been incredibly fortunate to have a part-time job at
an academic library while in graduate school. I got the job from a classmate,
and started working weeks after the program began. I am hyperaware that my
situation is exceptional, and I do not take it for granted. That said, I am
also in a position to constantly juxtapose the theoretical library of class
lectures with that of the real world library.
The academic library I work for is small. The institution is
a small liberal arts-based university in a rural area. Our needs are pretty different from other
academic libraries, and it’s created quite a challenge for me as a grad
student.
My experience has been that being aware of patron
demographics is not a significant part of the curriculum. However, it is a very important component of
librarianship. If you don’t know who you’re serving, how will you be able to
serve them? Seems to me an obvious question to address, yet it’s been largely
ignored in my classes.
Knowing who you serve is important on so many levels, from
spending money wisely to communicating with the patrons. In my opinion
(admittedly one of a student, but a student with work experience), it is the
key to a successful library. There’s a common phrase used in writing and
performing, “know your audience,” and it is absolutely applicable in other
realms, particularly the library where we are entrenched in service and our
community.
Yet it’s barely been mentioned in any of my classes. Sure,
I’ve had projects where I had to give a general description of the library and
the patrons, but never enough to impact the project itself. It was almost an
afterthought to the assignment.
At my job, I have noticed that the concepts taught in
library school are not always the best fit. For the most part, our students do
not have a need for several hundred databases. I have learned this from
interacting with the students, learning what their assignments are, and talking
with the professors. On the contrary, my courses have shifted the focus to
electronic resource providers such as EBSCOhost and ProQuest and all that they make
available. I do believe these are wonderful for research and accessibility,
however any more than a handful for each subject taught is definitely overkill.
So here I am, weeks away from finishing my MLIS program, and
I am contemplating how to approach finding out what the users’ needs are as a
professional librarian. I’ve learned about needs assessments and surveys from
the librarians, which are used to ask the faculty what they teach in class and
to find out what the students want to read more of for fun. I encourage
everyone to consider the importance of learning who is coming into the library,
what they need, and how to find out their needs.
Melissa Doyle is a Library Assistant at
Reinhardt University and she is about to graduate with her MLIS from University
of North Texas.
Yes, this is so important! I'm going into my second year of library school, and I'm really thankful that I had a management professor who really stressed the customer service and evaluation aspect, and I also took an elective in serving underserved populations (that should really be required, or at least its ideas should be weaved into required classes). Judging by how many rude librarians I come across when I secret shop libraries, I think it's definitely something that needs to be beaten into people, and it should probably also be brought up on the job as continuing education, too.
ReplyDelete